


Pattern

by Aki_Saiko (saikowrites)



Series: Writober 2019 [10]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi actually doing the detective, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everything is the same excepts the tv station meeting never happens, Inktober 2019, M/M, So no pancakes for Goro Im sorry, Writober 2019, pattern - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-12-07 20:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20981546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saikowrites/pseuds/Aki_Saiko
Summary: Akechi Goro meets Kurusu Akira not in tv station's hallway, but waiting for the train in Shibuya instead. And as time passes, the other boy it's just too weird and suspicious to let him escape the detective's radar.Or, how flashy uniform trousers and a cat in your bag can expose all your plans for reforming society.WRITOBER 2019 | Day 10: Pattern | Based on the official Inktober 2019 prompt list.





	Pattern

**Author's Note:**

> Let's play a game it's called How many non-P5 fics can I write before having to put another one in the schedule?  
I already planned the whole writober prompts, so the answer is: one P5 fic every 3-4 fics from other fandoms. I'm. Wow. This game really took away my heart and my life.

Black trousers with a tartan texture of thin red and white stripes cover long, slim legs that shifts the weight from one to the other while waiting for the train on the other platform. A boy gazes at the rail with unfocused expression. His hair a mess of black wavy curls who has never been properly brushed and styled; his shoulders curved, and his hands shoved in his pockets. Just a high schooler on his way back from school

Akechi is about to look away. From the boy’s bag a cat’s paw and a head pop out and the animal leans on his right shoulder. Akechi frowns and move his hand to his chin. The boy wears big glasses with thick black frame, their top border is covered by dense fringe. He must be as tall as him, his figure is slender, and his features are fine. His elbow pokes the schoolbag and the cat disappears in it without complaining. Akechi’s gaze runs down, on his chest. A white turtleneck climbs up on his neck from a black blazer neatly worn, all red buttons closed, and the emblem of Shujin Academy embroidered on the breast pocket.

The train on the opposite side arrives and the boy shakes, snapped out of his wondering. Their eyes meet and a train divides them and hides him from Akechi’s sight.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

A familiar black blazer and a too familiar tartan pattern blur on his right, run up beside him on the steps of the escalator. Akechi focuses on them and their owner, but it’s just another boy from Shujin. His blond, short-haired head weaves his way through the commuters, his loud voice calls for someone. Akechi rolls eyes at such a display of rudeness, but he reaches the top of the escalator and blinks. The blond one is speaking with familiarity to the cat boy, who wears what must be the summer uniform of Shujin. The white shirt is short sleeved and reveals his arms, slim as his legs.

Blondie points at his friend, says something and turns on his heels, speeds back down the subway stairs towards the gates. Akechi can’t help a chuckle. The other boy sighs and smiles a little, his expression only shifts for a moment.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

He’s standing near the entrance of Shibuya station’s underground mall; his eyes wander around and observe the people walking by. On his side, a gangly boy with deep blue hair sketches on a notebook with fiery fervor. The two exchange few words, but they stay silent for the most part.

Akechi doesn’t know the cat boy in the slightest, but he sure has some weird attitude and even weirder friends.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

A black fabric with tartan texture flaps on his peripheral vision. He looks up from the phone out of habit but already shakes his head in disappointment with himself.

However, Akechi’s interest runs back to the Shujin uniform’s skirt and its owner: Sae Niijima’s younger sister, Makoto. He moves away from the wall he’s been leaning to, waiting for a call, but stops soon enough. Makoto speeds past him without noticing, a nervous furrow on her eyebrows that is just so out of character on her always composed face.

Akechi puts away his phone in the pocket of his jacket and follows her to ask if there is something wrong. He opens his mouth to speak, but Makoto answers a call as she strides towards the Teikyu building and he can’t help but listen, he’s too close. “Ann?” she says “Yes, I’m coming. Is everyone already there? Good.” A pause. “No, say to Ryuji that we have no time for a soda break. I’m already climbing the stairs; I’ll be there within minutes. Bye.”

Akechi slows down and stays silent. He would have thought of a group hang, but as little as he knew Makoto, seeing her openly worried for something was no normal thing. She had always been the good girl type of pushover, who simply do what must be done and follow the rules with no questioning.

He, too, climbs up the stairs of the Teikyu building and locks his eyes on Makoto. She heads over the station passageway and slowly waves her hand to a group of various other Shujin students. Akechi digs out his phone again and gets closer with small steps, glances at the screen once in a while as if reading something on it. The people passing by make everything only more difficult, it’s hard not to lose sight of them.

The rest of the teenagers are waiting near the balustrade. A girl with platinum blond hair styled in two fluffy and curly ponytails cheers Makoto. By her side, the blondie Akechi has seen weeks before, the tall one with blue hair that he remembers from Shibuya… and the cat guy. He doesn’t know any of them except for Makoto, but only looking at such a group lights up his attention. The ones in Shujin uniform could be some of Makoto’s classmates, but the gangly one? He wears purple shirt and plain black trousers; he’s either from another institute or had the time to go back home and change clothes before the meeting.

The group draw closer to the cat guy, who picks his phone from his pocket and type something on it. Akechi can’t see clear enough but doesn’t dare taking another step. Only the blue-haired one stands in his sight, but he walks a bit further in the passageway and disappear in the crowd like the others.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Sakamoto Ryuji: second year at Shujin High School, former track team star who got into a fight with Suguru Kamoshida during his first year. Has been threatened with expulsion in April before the professor’s – how did they call it? – _change of heart_.

Takamaki Ann: second year at Shujin High School, best friend of Suzui Shiho, the girl who tried killing herself months before, and one of the many victims of Kamoshida’s abuses.

Kitagawa Yusuke: second year at Kosei High’s fine art division, former pupil of the well-known artist Ichiryusai Madarame.

Niijima Makoto: third year and student council president at Shujin High School. Honor student with excellent grades and a brilliant career waiting ahead. Sister of Prosecutor Sae Niijima and most likely the only one who could have known something about Junya Kaneshiro, Phantom Thieves’ most recent target.

And. Kurusu Akira: second year at Shujin High School. Transfer student from a small town in inner Japan, living a one-year probation in Tokyo under the custody of Sakura Sojiro. Late on his first day of school, threatened with expulsion as well as Sakamoto by Kamoshida but escaped it thanks to those criminals.

A more than weird group. How high were the odds that all previous victims of the Phantom Thieves’ targets befriended without having something linking every one of them to the others? There was that… _PhanSite_, sure, but Akechi looked at it and it was too chaotic to serve as a solid starting point for a meeting of those numbers. They were more than two or three: they were five, one of which didn’t even attend the same school.

Akechi steeples his fingers on the paperwork scattered among his desk in the living room. He already assumed that the Phantom Thieves were no normal criminals. Kamoshida, Madarame, Kaneshiro: no one had seen anything before or after those ‘calling cards.’ No bribes, no blackmail, no mafia involved aside from Kaneshiro’s gang. People transformed from day to night and there were no evidences to be found. There was no explanation to their actions and their methods beside the Metaverse. This, at least, gave Akechi an unfair advantage above the normal police.

_I shall inform Shido about this._

He revises the profiles he put together.

_Kurusu Akira_. Arrested and sued for assault. Testimony was provided by the victim but the papers in the archive didn’t show who accused him. It was shady. Even shadier, he’s under probation in Tokyo and not detained in juvenile hall. Either his parents were powerful enough to influence the sentence, or the person who sued didn’t want to drag any other unnecessary attention on them.

And there it is his guardian – _Sakura Sojiro._ Owns a café in the backstreets of Yongen-Jaya. Akechi frowns at the name. _Sakura_ is a rather common Japanese surname, but something is grating at the back of his mind.

He remembers. _Sakura Sojiro, retired government agent and dear friend of Isshiki Wakaba._

It could still be a coincidence, but the pieces fit just too well. He grabs his phone. He needs to dig deeper into this.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Leblanc’s glass door opens, and a bell announces his entrance in the place, that is only a few degrees cooler than the scorching Sunday morning of a typical Tokyo august. The café is smaller than Akechi had imagined, only three booth seats and some barstool in front of the counter. It possesses an old-fashioned charm, nonetheless. The kind of quiet place, far away from crowds and fanciness, that Akechi has been wishing to find for months since the beginning of the Phantom Thieves case.

Sojiro stands behind the counter cleaning some glasses. He greets Akechi with a warm smile. “Good morning and welcome to Café Leblanc. What will you have?”

Akechi takes a seat on the stool nearest the entrance. “I think I will go with what the house recommends for my first visit, thank you very much.” Sojiro nods, satisfaction on his face, and heads to the siphons to brew the coffee.

The stairs creak from the opposite side of the room. A boy with a tangled mess of black curls and heavy glasses comes down from the upper floor, casual clothes on and a leather bag on his shoulder. He lifts his head and glances at Akechi, his eyes blink only for a moment.

Akechi plays dumb. “I’m sorry, have we perhaps already met? I often appear on tv and might look familiar to you, but something about you is familiar to me, too.”

Akira speaks. “Yes.” His voice is low, a little hoarse, but gentle. “Shibuya. We were waiting for a train.”

Akechi grins in his head at the unexpected response. It is going to be a fun game.

**Author's Note:**

> Previous work in the collection: Love Live - NozoEli - Swing  
Next one in the collection will be: Pokémon - Preciousmetal


End file.
